I’ve never been as charmed and frustrated by one gadget as I have with the Poetry Camera.

It’s a delightful object. White and cherry red with a color-matched woven strap, it looks playful and adorably lo-fi. If I saw it on a store shelf, I’d absolutely pick it up.

But aside from obviously appealing, I’m not exactly sure what it is. I mean, I know what it is . It’s a camera that makes AI poems instead of photos. You take a picture, and instead of printing a photo, you get an AI-generated poem inspired by the scene, printed on thermal receipt paper. But after printing dozens of poems, I can only report feeling frustrated instead of inspired.

Poetry according to AI.

There’s no screen on the camera itself, just a shutter button and a dial that lets you pick a different poem style. It only works when connected to a Wi-Fi network, relaying your image and a prompt tied to the camera setting you’ve chosen to the cloud. About 30 seconds later, the printer spits out a poem.…